In February of last year, I published “Hard Times in Bunkie, Louisiana.” Space won’t allow me to repeat the entire sordid story. Suffice it to say that the Bunkie Police Department, represented by a controversial detective named Chad Jeansonne, filed a narcotics case on Larry Bazile, a heavy-set, middle-aged black man.
Chad used the usual tricks to get Bazile to cop to a quick plea. He threatened the family members arrested in the course of a warrantless raid that they would be prosecuted if they didn’t flip on Larry.
They refused to flip.
A local defense attorney was assigned to represent Bazile. After making her client wait all day to see her, she scanned a few documents and reached a swift conclusion: “You’re going to jail!” she announce imperiously. “Who do you think they will believe; two niggers or an FBI agent?”
The contours of the case against Big Larry was beginning to emerge from the bureaucratic fog. Bazile was charged with selling drugs to an FBI agent through the auspices of a middleman named Lloyd Robinson.
Although Bazilecouldn’t find an attorney to take his case, he had the enthusiastic support of his brother Jerriel, a Dallas businessman, and a sister, Gaythell Smith, an experienced Dallas Police officer who knew sloppy narcotics work when she saw it.
When Larry’s brother and sister demanded to see the paper work filed in connection with the case, they received six separate reports describing three mutually-contradictory crimes. In one story, Larry sold the dope directly to the FBI agent; in a second story, the FBI man was accompanied by an unnamed confidential informant; in version three, the FBI agent did the deal in the company of Lloyd Robinson.
The goal was to frighten Robinson into implicating Bazile. But at a hearing at the Marksville, Louisiana courthouse, Robinson refused to play along.
That’s where things stood in February of last year.
That month, an attorney was hired to defend Larry Bazile. District Attorney Charles Riddle told the new attorney that he had an audio tape of the transaction that clearly implicated Bazile. When the largely inaudible tape was played (with Larry’s Dallas siblings listening in) the only distinct phrase was, “Big Larry would not sell them drugs.”
District Attorney Charles Riddle had no hard evidence, but he refused to drop the case.
Over the next few months, five inconsequential pre-trial hearings, all scheduled by the state, were convened. The DA’s office was trying to wear Bazile down. Again, it didn’t work.
Finally, on November 3, 2008, shortly after his attorney had withdrawn from the case, “Big Larry” was called to the courthouse in Marksville for yet another hearing.
As soon as the family entered the courtroom they knew something was amiss. Instead of the usual sea of black faces, the courtroom was awash in white people. Larry Bazile was informed that a jury was being selected and he was going to trial.
“But I don’t have an attorney,” Bazile protested.
Judge Mark Jeansonne (the cousin of the Bunkie cop who originally filed the case on Larry Bazile) was defiant. (I’m not making this up.) The case was going to trial one way or another.
A dishevelled civil attorney with no experience in criminal law was summoned to represent Bazile. When the p0or man protested that he knew next to nothing about criminal law, Judge Jeansonne tossed him a manual of criminal procedure and told him to do the best he could.
As the hapless civil attorney flipped manically through his instruction booklet, Larry Bazile was instructed to direct voir dire questions to a roomful of prospective jurors. Larry told the judge that he had no idea how to proceed.
Jerriel Bazile and Gaythell Smith glanced nervously around the courtroom. There was no sign of the FBI agent who had allegedly purchased drugs from Larry Bazile. The state of Louisiana was going to make this case as a swearing match between a black defendant and a white police officer.
Before withdrawing from Larry’s case, an attorney had filed a discovery motion but had never received the requested information. Judge Jeansonne said it didn’t matter.
Larry Bazile was on the verge of panic. If he was forced to represent himself, a conviction was a foregone conclusion.
Finally, a defense attorney who was passing by the courtroom was prevailed upon to defend Mr. Bazile. He had no choice but to advise his client to accept the government’s plea bargain. If he could stay our of trouble for three years, the attorney explained, the conviction would be expunged from Bazile’s record.
It seems almost certain that Detective Chad Jeansonne invented a phantom FBI officer in order to make a fraudulent narcotics case on a defenseless black defendant. Moreover, Judge Mark Jeansonne allowed his wayward cousin to submit his creative writing assignment. Both men will emerge unscathed.
Why pay attention to a nickel-and-dime narcotics case in an obscure corner of Louisiana? If this kind of behavior is tolerated in Avoyelles Parish, it will eventually be tolerated everywhere. That must not happen.
Friends of Justice 
Judicial and prosecutorial misconduct should never be ignored. We still have a constitution. The defendant’s rights were clearly violated. He accepted a plea under duress. The media should be paying attention. The Louisiana Attorney General should be made aware of this case.
You are correct Alan….we need to pay attention to this kind of behavior by judges, police officers, and prosecutors. This can not be tolerated or ignored.
Thank you for your continued work and interest in seeking justice for all!
This is pretty inflammatory. I’m not going to call you a liar, but I would ask that you cite your sources.
Cool story bro. Too bad it’s not true.
Thanks for the word of caution, brother Tyrone. Have you seen the relevant documents in this case? If you have, you will realize that there were exactly three mutually contradictory versions of the alleged crime alluded to therein. Local officials had good reason to push ahead with trial without providing Larry Bazile with prepared and informed legal counsel. Under those circumstances, Larry had no choice but to take the plea. You appear to presume the guilt of the defendant and other jurors would have followed your lead.
NOT TRUE I LIVE HERE AND I HAVE SOME THINGS GOING ON WITH MY SON HE STOLE SOME PHONES AND HE WAS PROSECUTED BUT BECAUSE THE KIDS WHO THE PHONE BELONGED PARENTS WERE HUNTING AND CAMP ASSOCIATES HE HAS TO PAY FULL RESTITUTION INSTEAD OF INSURANCE DEDUCTIBLE ON TOP OF THAT IT HAPPENED LAST SCHOOL YEAR AND THEY DECIDED TO EXPELL HIM AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS SCHOOL YEAR .AVOYELLES PARISH WAS A CONFEDERATE STRONGHOLD IN THE CIVIL WAR AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED. YOU TRY TO GO THROUGH PROPER CHANNELS FOR HELP AND YOU ARE EXPOSED BY THE SAME POLITICANS IN BATON ROUGE CAUSE THEY HUNT DUCKS TOGETHER. YEAH THATS SMALL TO YOU BUT THESE PEOPLE HERE ARE BECOMING ARROGANT WITH THE PREJUDICE……………………….MAN ITS BAD PLEASE CAN SOMEONE FROM THE MEDIA DISCREETLY CHECK INTO THIS AND TRUST ME ITS NOT JUST THE WHITE PEOPLE THE CERTAIN FAMILIES OF BLACKS ARE IN WITH IT…..I AM A VETERAN AND I FIND IT LAME THAT IN AVOYELLES PARISH AN INMATE ON WORK RELEASE GETS HIRED BEFORE A FREE MAN CAUSE THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE GET 50% OF NET PAY AND CHARGES A DAILY FEE FOR TRANSPORTATION AND FOOD ….THEY HAVE INMATES WORKING AT THEIR CAMPS AND ON THEIR FARMS …ALSO THE ONLY TYPE OF DRUG THEY INVESTIGATE IS BLACK ASSOCIATED ONE AND ONLY PATROL THE BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS …LOOK THERE IS ALOT OF COOTON FARMERS IN THE PARISH BUT THE ACREAGE PLANTED DOES NOT MATCH THE AMOUNT OF ANHYDRUSS BOUGHT …CASE IN POINT IF YOU HAVE 25 FARMERS 10 PLANT COTTON BUT ALL ORDER ANHYDRUS DURING THE REGULATION PERIOD THATS HOW THEY STAY UNDER THE RADAR …WHEN THE RACISM HERE WAS ABOUT TO GET THE BEST OF ME I DECIDED TO PAY ATTENTION TO HOW THINGS WORKED I KNEW FROM THE STREETS THAT THERE IS METH HERE AND RECENTLY ONE LAB WAS RAIDED …..
THIS GOES TO SHOW LA. IS STILL THE MOST RACIST STATE IN AMERICA.I HATE LA.THEM RACIST PECKERWOODS HAVE DESTROYED WHAT LITTLE BEAUTY THERE IS THERE.THOSE SAME ATTITUDES IS WHY I WILL NEVER RETURN TO LIVE.BLACK PEOPLE NEED RISE UP.THEM OLD DEVILS. THEY GOT ROT IN HELL FOR ETERNITY. GOD’S JUDEMENT FALL UPON THEM RIGHT NOW IN JESUS’ NAME.
Everyone should know this is not true! There is a record there in Avoyelles, a complete transcript. Judge Bennett warned Larry Bazile after about 7 times the case was set for trial, for Larry Bazile to quit stalling. Every time the case was set for trial, Larry Bazile would fire his attorney or said he was missing a witness, so after 7 times, Judge Jeansonne said — “enough, you must go to trial!” There is a record! And the record shows Larry Bazile was a drug dealer!
If you read the police reports, you will find three mutually contradictory descriptions of the alleged drug deal. In other words, the sting operation that supposedly nailed Bazile was thoroughly corrupt. This doesn’t mean Larry Bazile wasn’t dealing drugs; but it does mean the state should not have been able to convict him on the basis of a corrupt operation.
the state did not “convict” him, HE PLED GUILTY AND CONFESSED TO EVERYTHING ON THE RECORD.
PEOPLE READ THE RECORD
As a white woman who grew up in Bunkie, I can promise you things like this happen ALL the time there. I personally know of a murder case that was covered up because the police didn’t want Bunkie to look bad. Break ins and suicides don’t happen on the exact same night…